BLACKJACK INSURANCE

There is no guaranteed formula promising to eliminate the element of risk, which is natural. Blackjack, though, possesses strategies and side bets that work against the house edge that may help you win more. One such bet is the blackjack insurance bet, but is it worth placing in practice? Let’s walk through everything you need to know about insurance in blackjack.

What is blackjack insurance?

Blackjack insurance bets are easy to understand, but getting it 100% right might be challenging. Simply put, an insurance bet is a type of side wager in blackjack that acts as a safety net against the dealer winning the round by getting a blackjack.

It is not offered on every table, but when it is, you may be wondering if it’s an option worth considering. For, you’ll need to understand the basic strategy behind it.

How does insurance work in Blackjack?

An insurance bet is an optional side bet, taking the original wager and adding an insurance wager half that amount. Bear in mind, the only time you can take insurance is before the dealer’s hole card is revealed and when the dealer’s upcard is an ace.

This means an insurance bet is a way to hedge your bet on the dealer’s blackjack. Should that next card land the dealer blackjack, the dealer pays off the insured half even if the main bet is lost.

When to take insurance in blackjack

Taking insurance in blackjack is controversial. Although it may seem like an attractive option, probability suggests that insurance will not be profitable in the long run. It may be worth considering taking insurance when you’re playing single-deck blackjack and are confident that the dealer’s hole card will likely be 10, jack, queen or king. But Lady Luck is the one true dealer in every casino, and blackjack is just another date with the unknown! 

Most blackjack experts agree that an insurance bet is not very likely to bring profits in the long term, and given that most blackjack tables in online casinos are played with six or eight decks, slightly raising the house advantage, it’s safe to say the odds of an insurance bet panning out are rather low. 

Insurance bets: what you need to know

So, now that we’ve identified what makes blackjack insurance work, let’s pull up the cold hard facts to keep in mind when playing.

Insurance is a side bet

Insurance is a side bet players make on whether or not the dealer hits 21. The bet is half the original wager. Winning insurance wagers pay out 2:1.

Insurance can only be taken if the dealer shows an ace

You can place an insurance bet if a dealer’s upcard is an ace. If their next card doesn’t hit it, you win.

The insurance bet is paid out in even money

Insurance adds half your original bet to a win. If you lose, both the original bet and the insured half are lost. This, and the available odds, may make it relatively low-worth in a game. 

Insurance bets work best on single decks.

Most tables play with six or eight decks, whereas your risk is lower when playing with a single deck.

To insure or not to insure…that is the bet!

Getting insurance may be an even-money event in blackjack, so though insurance may not be the golden ticket — it’s an option. Look into blackjack charts online to help you learn which actions to take given the state at hand.

But while taking insurance can be a good way to protect your hand against the possibility that the dealer has blackjack, it is recommended to avoid this wager. The probability of successful insurance bets is low, so insurance is unlikely to net you any profits in the long run. 

What are the odds for insurance bets?

We know that the payout odds for insurance are paid 2:1, but what are the odds of winning this wager? The chances of earning a payout with an insurance bet vary from game to game, additionally affected by the number of decks in play. 

To understand how often an insurance bet has a chance of hitting the target, let’s take a look at the probabilities of procuring blackjack for both the player and the dealer. 

Given an eight-deck shoe, the likelihood of being dealt a blackjack hand is 4.74%, or approximately once every 21 hands (how fitting). The odds of the player AND dealer’s hand both having blackjack simultaneously are only 0.22% (one in 450 hands), but the odds of a dealer’s ace upcard upgrading to blackjack stand at 30.77%, which is roughly four out of 13 hands, giving the dealer the edge here. The fewer decks in play, the higher the probabilities, but only marginally. 

Other side bets

Insurance bets may be limited since the dealer’s upcard needs to be an ace to pay out. However, these wagers are not the only side bets players can pick on a table.

One popular choice is the 21+3 bet. This involves forming a three-card poker hand out of the player’s two cards and the dealer’s upcard. You can only win through a certain number of combinations, and the odds for this stake make plain its potential appeal; getting a flush pays out 5:1, while a suited triple pays out at 100:1!

Another favourite is the Perfect Pairs bet, used when your two cards form some kind of pair. There are three ways to win this side bet: earning a mixed pair (the cards are two different colours), coloured pair (the cards are the same colour but not the same suit) and perfect pair (the cards are two of the same). A perfect pair could pay out as high as 30:1.

Insurance Rule Variations

While rare, other forms of the insurance stake exist to benefit the player in different ways. For instance, a player can insure an amount equal to the original stake or insure against the dealer’s hole card when it is a 10-value card. Some casinos in Europe allow the player to insure when the dealer’s hand is blackjack. Sometimes, the surrender rule in blackjack is used as a variation of the insurance bet, like, for example, when the dealer doesn’t have a natural blackjack (called late surrender). 

Insurance in play – Example of blackjack insurance

The following example illustrates how an insurance wager would play out on a hypothetical hand and have it pay off:

1. Players bet €10 a table.
2. They are dealt a seven and a queen.
3. The dealer’s card is an ace.
4. The players then add an insurance bet for an additional €5.
5. The dealer’s second card is revealed to be a four.
6. Players lose their insurance bet. 

Now let’s look at another random scenario, only the player’s stake on the insurance line results in a loss:

1. The player stakes €10.
2. They are dealt a 10-value picture card and an eight.
3. The dealer’s upcard is an Ace.
4. Player stakes insurance for an additional €5.
5. The dealer’s other card is a jack, so the dealer has now hit blackjack.
6. The player wins the insurance bet.

Try it out for yourself!

Now that you know what insurance looks like in a game and how likely it is to win, you might feel ready to see this bet in action. Since taking insurance is generally not recommended, you can try playing around with this wager for free online, and stand to lose only a virtual bet and not your actual money! Simply load up the demo mode of any of our RNG first-person tables that offer insurance, including Microgaming’s European Blackjack or Evolution’s First Person Blackjack, and give ‘em a go at our online casino!